Editorial: A legacy of two Cuomos

Our opinion: It’s fine to honor the late Gov. Mario M. Cuomo by putting his name on the Tappan Zee replacement bridge, but it’s time for the current Governor Cuomo to explain how the state will pay for the span.

Mario M. Cuomo was a dedicated public servant, a three-term New York governor who was arguably the greatest political orator of the late 20th century. He is worthy of honor. Now he’s to have a bridge named for him.

The tribute to the late governor was part of the omnibus legislation approved by the state Assembly this week when his son, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, called lawmakers back for an “extraordinary” session. In addition to avoiding a crisis over New York City school leadership and settling a major counties sales tax issue, the package also addressed a less urgent matter: what to call the new, nearly $4 billion span that is being built to replace the aging Tappan Zee bridge, which connects Westchester and Rockland counties in the lower Hudson Valley.

Already approved by the state Senate, the Assembly action means the span will be known as the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge. The move comes over the objections of some individual Assembly members who complained, in part, because the current bridge was named for Malcolm Wilson, a longtime Republican Assemblyman from Westchester County who was Nelson Rockefeller’s lieutenant governor and served as the state’s chief executive for a year after Governor Rockefeller stepped down in 1973. Their objections were rejected, and the new bridge will have a new name.

So with the naming done, isn’t it time for New York’s taxpayers to find out how the state will be paying for the new structure? To start the project, Mr. Cuomo used a $1.6 billion short-term federal loan. He also has tapped some money won in settlements with Wall Street firms for their role in the mortgage banking crisis that led to the Great Recession. What has yet to be revealed is how much will be paid with long term bonds and how that cost will be covered. Tolls? Taxes?

The Cuomo administration has been tight-lipped about whether the ultimate financing plan will eventually mean a hike in the tolls on the new bridge and on other Hudson River crossings or, as some speculate, an overall increase in the charges to use the entire state Thruway. That would mean travelers and commuters from Yonkers to Cheektowaga would be paying down the debt for years to come. This uncertainty prompted Wall Street analysts to downgrade the Thruway Authority’s bond rating.

Last year’s decision to take the state’s financially strapped Canal Corp. out from under the Thruway Authority was a sensible way to stabilize the authority, preparing it to shoulder the burden of paying for the new bridge. Still, Mr. Cuomo has been mum on paying for the new bridge.

Some cynics say that naming the new bridge after Cuomo the father was meant to bolster the career of Cuomo the son, who is said to harbor presidential ambitions. Unless the state soon presents a transparent and equitable way to pay for it, the new bridge could end up memorializing a sort of fiscal mismanagement that neither of the Governors Cuomo would want linked to their name.